Jagex's Runescape Card Game is Unexpected

Jagex is working on a card game based in the world of its MMO Runescape. It plays very differently from the other collectible card games flooding the internet at the moment. Unlike Hearthstone, Hex, and Magic: The Gathering, Chronicle: Runescape Legends doesn't pit you in a direct battle with your opponent. Instead, you battle against yourself while trying to throw extra challenges against your opponent.

In Chronicle you're trying to get to the end of a multi-stage path, fighting monsters along the way to get gold, items, and buffs that will put you in good stead to beat the big bosses at the end. In a tactical twist, it falls to you to place down the monsters in your path. Chronicle plays like a puzzle game where you need to work out what order to put down the monster cards in your hand so that you will have enough health and strength to fight your way through them.

If you've ever played the card game Munchkins, it's a little like that.

Throughout a game of Chronicle a second player is working along their own path in parallel to you. What complicates things is that some of the cards you can play down can affect the other player and vice versa. You might, for instance, have carefully constructed a path of monsters, each more difficult than the last but dropping bonuses that make you capable of taking on the next, and then the player on the other path plays a card that changes up the order of your monsters. In short, you can troll the hell out of each other if you're so inclined.

The shelf-life of CCGs is reliant on the combos you can flesh out with your deck. In Chronicle you need to build a deck that will last you five stages of the game and won't leave you with a hand of monsters too powerful for your current level.

I've been given a key to try out the Chronicle in beta so will hopefully have some thoughts up in the coming days.